4th and Goal With...Dwight Freeney

Hello! I'm back with another interview for "4th and Goal With..." and this time I interviewed Dwight Freeney. Enjoy!

What has been the biggest adjustment from Defensive End to going to outside linebacker?

The biggest adjustment for me is that you have to drop back in coverage a lot more than you would at a defensive end position. So sometimes I end up having to cover wide receivers and cover the running back in the backfield and tight ends, and you know it’s a big adjustment for me cause in the past I really didn’t do much of that.

So now you have to be covering a GRONK or JIMMY GRAHAM?

Yes. At linebacker I have to play both sides the right and the left side. At defensive end, I was pretty much just on the right side.

How much of an inspiration has Chuck Pagano been in the locker room?

He has been a great inspiration to us all. He’s a family member. Our team is like a family. When one guy hurts, we all hurt. When one guy feels great we all feel great. So for him to be battling cancer and fighting that, it’s a really big inspiration for us to go out there and do our all and give it our all on the field, which is nothing compared to the fight that he is going through right now. So that’s the biggest inspiration.

How has the mindset changed from last year from being 2 and 14 to being in the playoff hunt this year?

The mindset hasn’t changed. Obviously, the outcome of the games has. Believe it or not, games during last year’s season, definitely in the beginning, were pretty close to this year’s season. It’s just that the ball bounced, probably, you know, actually not probably, it bounced more in our favor this year than it did last year. Some of the games that we won this year we would have lost last year. And all it takes is one play and one time for it to happen. When you don’t win and are 0-6,0-7, 0-8 then that’s when guys start to pack it in a little bit and we never did that around here but it was just too hard for us to come back.

After you had a really hard loss to the Patriots and now you are going to face the Lions and then you’re going to face the Texans twice, what are the keys to keeping the Wild Card?

Really the keys are just to continue to focus on our next opponent and not worry about the future. Worry about what presents itself in our face day in day out which is practice. Making sure that we are on time with practice, doing our plays, making sure we understand what we’re doing. Practices turn to success in the game. Our next game is Detroit so that is the only thing we’re worried about. We’re not worried about anything else. You know, you can just look at it as a one game Super Bowl Season.